Being Young and Political:
The Influence on Instagram Activism ofIndonesian Female Activists Amidst the Covid-19 Pandemic

Bruce Dame Laoera1

1 Lecturer, School of Liberal Arts, Mae Fah Luang University, Thailand

コロナ禍による行動規制もあって、アジア各国でもSNSで政治・社会的な発信をする若者が増えている。インドネシアの若き女性インフルエンサーたちを例に、その影響力を検証した。

Abstract

The notion of influencer has attracted plenty of academic responses over the last decade. Since the rise of theinternet and social network in the digital world, people have finally found a more accessible and open medium for
opinion and speech through their posts, tweets, or captions. The rise of social media facilitates social interaction
and political discussion. It has the function of the public sphere as a network for communicating information andpoints of view (Habermas in Kellner, 2000), especially during the pandemic of Covid-19. The objects of this study
are three notable millennial female influencers from Indonesia where they actively contribute their political activism
that is also related to certain political parties and governments. Moreover, they have been gaining popularity fromtheir post-sharing and political activism on Instagram.
By investigating these influencers based on their Instagram’s contents, this study explores how political discussions flow and their activism which they have contributed and shared to the audience and society. Thus, theirinfluences amidst the pandemic are visible in moving youths more aware and critical by contesting specific social
issues, especially in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.
Keywords

Influencer, Instagram, Politics, Pandemic, Youth Movement

Introduction

Indonesia’s social and political landscape has undergone a significant transformation after the downfall of
President Soeharto’s 32-year-long authoritarian regime,
the New Order in 1998 (Beta, 2019), as there was minimal freedom of expression and people could not challenge and disapprove the government. Nowadays, thechallenge of direct communication in new democracy is
to aggregate public opinion (Papacharissi, 2010), whichmeans that digital technologies make it possible for new
players, such as average citizens, to become involved inpolitical decisions (Dubois and Gaffney, 2014).
Although most of the time, citizens only have opportunities to participate in political deliberation by discussing the current issues and policies or regulations

created by the government. Social media, generally, hasbeen the platform to express opinions and share information regardless of their intentions which can be either
for entertainment only or aiming particular ideas andagenda. A number of studies have argued that digital
media have played essential roles in coordinating, mobilizing, and organizing social and political movements(Suwana, 2019).
The reform movement of 1997–98 saw the first substantial formation of an information society in Indonesia,
using new media and the Internet (Hill & Sen, 2005;
Holik, 2011; Lim, 2011; Nugroho, et al., 2011; Romano,
2005; Suwana, 2019). Furthermore, Instagram - whichemphasizes photos and videos – has been the most popular social media (Rahardjo, 2020; Mulyani, Mikarsa, &187

Bruce Dame Laoera

Puspitawati, 2018; Solomon, 2013). It has also justreached one billion active users, which is projected toincrease to two billion in the next five years (Rahardjo,
2020; Kurnia, 2018).
Digital Activism in Indonesia
By talking about digital activism in the first phase, it
actually remarks the appearance of independent news
websites, mailing lists, and hacker activists (hacktivists)that brought the issue of struggle against power domination of formal or non-conventional institutions (Paskarina,
2020; Gerbaudo, 2017). In the second phase, digital
activism became freer through social media networks tomobilize an even broader audience (Paskarina, 2020:
Gerbaudo, 2017). Lim (2013) argues that social media
does not always aim to advance and deepen democracy;
however, these contested spheres allow individuals tohave greater participation culturally and socially.
Moreover, it facilitates social interaction and political discussion and has the function of the public sphereas a network for communicating information and pointsof view (Habermas in Kellner, 2000). Even thoughsocial media has been touted to increase political participation, it is equally possible that in an era of hyperpartisanship, experiences on social media could also drive
people away from politics (Tucker, et al, 2018). Thus,
when it comes to the political campaign, many politicalcandidates use social media by endorsing celebrities or
influencers, paying buzzers to win the elections, andpersuading people to join in some movements.
This research aims to analyze three remarkable
female influencer/activists: Kalis Mardiasih, Anindita
Fiserly Utami, and Ayu Kartika Dewi. They have been
gaining popularity from their post-sharing and politicalactivism in Indonesia. Even though each of them comesfrom different backgrounds, they have similarities: they
are young, urban Muslims, and share the contents whichmostly explore topics related to feminism, politics, tolerance, and environment on Instagram.
Moreover, they are also well-known for their political activism; First, Mardiasih has conducted genderclasses for the public and is an author of Muslim-feminist
books. Second, Utami has her own Youtube channel

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where she discusses her political views, and she is also a
co-founder of an organization that gathers youngsters to
educate them in politics. Last, Dewi is an activist who
mostly speaks up about tolerance and feminism. She iscurrently working as a member of “special staff”, young
people who work for and assist President Joko Widodo
in discussing the draft proposal of law bills.

MethodThis study employs qualitative research by collecting
data from the contents and posts on Instagram createdby the influencers above. As Beta (2018) stated in her
study of the Da’wa community on social media, they
discuss, engage with, and express how they “feel” about
issues they are interested in. To show self-improvement
and self-enterprise combined with religious self-cultivation, these influencer/activists also tried to move theirfollowers to be aware and persuade them to act and react
to the situations that are currently happening inIndonesia. For example, ask them to join the hashtag
campaigns, invite them to attend their seminars orclasses, or persuade them to react to current issues. This
form of political activism endorsed by the influencers indigital media has become the ultimate way in moving
society to react and act with the issues and policies madeby the authority.
Thus, it can be measured by decoding the contents
that appeared on Instagram. Hall’s Encoding/Decoding
model acknowledges that we are not simply free tointerpret texts (or technologies) in just any way (Shaw,2017). Through their Instagram’s captions, the “messageform” is the necessary ‘form of appearance’ of the event
in its passage from source to receiver (Wodak, et al,2014). Before the message can have an effect, it mustfirst be appropriated as a meaningful discourse and bemeaningful decoded. This set of decoded meanings has
an effect, influence, entertain, instruct, or persuade withvery complex perceptual, emotional, ideological, or
behavioral consequences (Wodak, et al, 2014). Therefore,
this method fits to analyze how the shared contents of
Instagram by influencer/activists influence and engage
with youth political movements on social media in
Indonesia.

6th AFC Best Papers

Analysis and Discussion

1. The Female Influencer/Activist in Indonesia
When we are discussing the term “influencer” itself,
it leads to the act of influencing and persuading others toa particular “movement.” The influencers are people
who exhibit some combination of desirable attributes—
whether personal attributes like credibility, expertise, or
enthusiasm or network attributes such as connectivity or
centrality—that allows them to influence a disproportionately large number of others (Bakshy, et al, 2011).
Influencers are also loosely defined as individuals who
disproportionately impact the spread of information or
related behavior of interest (Bakshy, et al, 2011). It is
fascinating when these Instagram personalities effectively spread messages about new products, starting andpopularizing new trends (Jin, et al, 2018). There is astrong relationship between the influencers and theaudience; the influencer promotes and propagates aboutsome issues while the audience becomes their “target”
to join their movement.
Khan (2012) states that the internet does offer numerous avenues for political expression and several ways to
influence politics and become politically active.
Moreover, social media influencers represent a new typeof independent third-party endorser who shapes audience attitudes through blogs, tweets, and the use of othersocial media (Freberg, et al, 2011). However, it cannot bedenied that some of them may have political affiliations
or be endorsed by political parties and specific organizations. Therefore, the phenomenon of social media influencers who endorse or criticize specific politicalcandidates and some of whom are highly educated young
urban Muslim women, have become essential players inpolitical activism in Indonesia.
Habermas’ theory in the structural transformation of
the public sphere has become the motivation in analyzing media and social changes. Many related studies contribute to the transformation in political discourse,
notably after the rise of the internet and social media.
Wojcieszak and Mutz (2009) explain their research
about an online discussion that facilitates exposure topolitical disagreement. They examine the types of
online discussion spaces that create opportunities forcross-cutting political exchanges. Since Indonesia has
the majority of Muslim population, many assume that
democracy cannot exist with Islamism; it is more likely
the opposite. In Malaysia and Indonesia, democratization went hand in hand with Islamization (Hamid,
2006). Although liberal and conservative Muslims haveoften been at odds with each other in their interpretations of Islamic morality, both have used the recently
acquired freedoms associated with democratization toadvance their interests (Brenner, 2011). Moreover,another research conducted by Parahita in 2019,
explained a lot about the rise of feminist activism inIndonesia. She stated that social media had become afertile site for the public to aspire their views and mobilize people for some causes, including social media
accounts voicing feminist perspectives in Indonesian
online sphere. Her study explained Indonesian digital
feminism activists that have started with the agencies ofthe young women of Indonesia in the circle of senior
feminists in Jakarta and feminists emerging from theIslamist network. In her research, she also stated that the
specific aims of the activism are various, but their main
goals remain to educate the public about sexuality,
gender equality and feminism, and building solidarity.
In their Instagram posts, Utami focuses more on government policies that impact the environment and climate crisis; Mardiasih contributes more in Islam andFeminism, a discourse about the female body, patriarchy, and identity. Moreover, Dewi campaigns more
about tolerance and multiculturalism among Indonesian
youths. As influencers, they often create posts on
Instagram and write down their thoughts on inviting
their audience to engage in their topic discussion, especially during this Covid-19 pandemic. Three of them
have similarities: young, reside in big urban cities(Jakarta and Yogyakarta), and express their opinions
and activism towards the government’s policies andsocial issues. Based on my observation, they also involve
themselves in political activities, for example, they created their social community that mainly recruited andinvited the youth to join in their program and become
the speaker in webinars that discuss social issues.
The differences between celebrities and influencers:

189

Bruce Dame Laoerasocial media makes the possibility of solid engagement
between an individual (in this matter, the influencer/
activist) and their audience (followers). Social media
blurs the distance from one person to another and creates a sense of intimacy among people in another reality.
Cochrane (2013) claims the current “fourth wave of
feminism” is defined by technology: tools that are allowing women to build a strong, popular, reactive movement online (Darmon, 2014). Moreover, the role ofpolitical socialization and civic engagement programs,
then, is to teach young people how to work with theirgovernments and how to be good citizens rather thanallowing them to continue to adopt non-standard
approaches to participation that do not necessarily promote societal cohesion (United Nations, 2007; Taft andGordon, 2011).
2. I nstagram Activism during Covid-19 Pandemic:
Experience, Charity, and Motivation
Since the early stage of Covid-19 spread, theIndonesian government was less aware and did not
really pay attention to this situation. Not until the firstcase of Covid-19 appeared in March 2020, and not longafter that the government applied the national lockdown
to all provinces in Indonesia. There are various kinds ofreactions from people on social media: blaming the government due to their lack of anticipation, supporting the
lockdown regulation during Covid-19 crisis, and giving
information to prevent getting infected from this virus.
Most Instagram users usually share different kindsof content, from their daily life, the reaction of trending
issues, motivation, and others. During the first lockdown last year, Mardiasih, Utami, and Dewi shared
their first lockdown experience and reaction. Mardiasih
said on her Instagram post, “For those of you who arestill struggling to explain the fatality of coronavirus toyour parents or family, I hope you have enoughpatience…” (March, 2020), with the hashtag#LawanCorona (Fight Corona) and #SalingJaga(#TakeCareEachOther). Hashtag activism is a potentially beneficial method for increasing awareness advocacy efforts and “bypassing the gatekeepers” by giving
arrangements of advocates, from everyday citizens to

190

multi-million dollar companies, an opportunity to gettheir messages out to others (Bennet, 2014; Stache,2014). As Mardiasih stated there, she noticed manyhoaxes on social media related to the cause or the spreadof Coronavirus. Moreover, Indonesia is not the only
country fighting hoaxes and false conspiracy on theinternet, and many of them are distributed throughsocial media, including Instagram.
Mardiasih is a Muslim feminist writer. She is pretty
vocal in her activism to fight the patriarchal system. Her
affiliation with the Gusdurian community (Jaringan
Gusdurian, a notable community founded by the daughters of Gus Dur, a former president of Indonesia)
explains her critical discussion on being a Muslimah, aMuslim-feminist, and women empowerment. During
the lockdown of Covid-19, one of her posts asked herfollowers to donate money to Pesantren (Islamic
Boarding School), helping to obtain swab test, medicines, and daily supplies as she collaborated with
Jaringan Gusdurian to support Pesantren in the spreadof Coronavirus.
Furthermore, Utami expressed her first reaction
towards this crisis. She stated, “The part that seems so
unfair and leaves me greatly dissonance, is that with allof the awful things/injustices that are happening in theworld, I’m comfortably sheltered under these massive,
abundant privileges, a stable income and job barely
affected by the (Covid) crisis” (Utami, Mei 2020). Many
influencer activists bring up the privilege topic which
relates with power and dominance. As in Indonesia,
being a Muslim and living on Java that is mainly dominated by Javanese and Sundanese, middle class with ahighly-educated background, and stable job. Thus, shewanted to show that she is embedded with many privileges less affected by the pandemic. She wanted to be
objective about her privilege and asked her audience tobe honest with theirs, too. Understanding their privileges will build a collective identity that leads to solidarity to others who do not have similar privileges. As
many scholars said, solidarity puts the needs and agenda
above all others in order to accomplish the movement’s
goal (McDonald, 2002; Chavez, 2012). She intends tobuild this solidarity to help other people who were6th AFC Best Papers

struck by the pandemic crisis: the vulnerable and poor
ones. As she stated, “Like many of you, I try to take mypart in ’redistributing’ some of these privileges throughdonating or promoting local shops, but I am still grappling with the fact that we live in a society with so muchinequality.” She posted this invitation to her audience
for raising funds in collaboration between her online
community organization @thinkpolicyid and @bagi.
rata, a charity organization.
Moreover, Dewi’s first reaction to Covid-19 was,“I’m not going to talk about Covid 19 data, but I’ll talkabout our attitudes. I have 3 points: maintain personal
hygiene, increase immunity, do not transmit to people…
do you have any suggestions?” (Dewi, March 2020).
Dewi tried to engage with her followers about the spreadof Coronavirus; thus, her first post about Covid-19 wascommented on by many people as they added more suggestions on what should and should not do during the
pandemic. This engagement between the followers andinfluencers commonly happened on social media. Dewi,
the creator of many Non-Government Organizations,
usually discusses all matters related to tolerance, mental
health, women, and other social issues. Dewi, who works
as special staff for Jokowi’s presidency, became one of the
youth icons that succeeded in bringing herself closer in
discussing the draft of public policies with the president.
Like Mardiasih and Utami, Dewi has also persuaded
her followers to do more charities and donate to vulnerable people during the pandemic. Although she did not
really mention which organization she collaborated toraise funds, she shared it on her Instagram post, where a
big national TV interviewed her about what people
should do during the crisis. In addition, Dewi also
shared her experience when she got infected by thevirus. She shared the journey when she first contactedwith Covid-19 until she fully recovered from it.
Certainly, as an influencer and activist, she suggested
that her audience follow the health protocol, choose
medical masks instead of cloth masks, and speak about
motivation and depression.
Those three influencer/activists did their activism inthe situation of Covid-19 pandemic by showing theirreaction, experience, and persuasive way to influence

the audience to join in their activism. Most of their audience agree with their activism as they support and add
more suggestions on what they should do to survive thepandemic. Some of them might ask questions related tohealth protocol and how to overcome and cope with theCoronavirus situation. However, Mardiasih, Utami, andDewi are still active in their activism aside from sharing
information and motivations during the pandemic crisis.
Their engagement with their audience are helpful as
they tried to bring the interaction up to persuade them tojoin in their charity movements. Moreover, they still
discuss their usual activism. For example, Utami discussed how this pandemic is related to the environmental crisis, Mardiasih discussed the violence that
happened to women during the pandemic. Meanwhile,
Dewi shared more motivations to their audience: to bestrong, obey the health protocol, and not easily trust
false news on social media.
3. H ashtag Power to Influence Youth Activism on
Instagram in Covid-19 Crisis.
A dramatic increase has been registered in thenumber of social media posts in photo form as well as inhashtag activism. Hashtags, which manifest thoughts
and feelings clearly and concisely, originated on Twitter,
where the length of a post is limited; their use, however,has expanded into other social media services, including
Instagram (Kim et al, 2020). There are many famous
hashtag
activisms,
suchas#MeTooand#BlackLivesMatter. During this Covid-19 pandemic,
several popular hashtags are widely spread on Instagram,for example #SalingJaga, #DiRumahAja, and#LawanCorona. Hashtags, which make it easy to findand express support for posts of interest, have been
widely used for online activism, although they havebeen criticized for fostering confirmation bias (Kim etal, 2020).
Although, it is pretty unclear who started to use thosehashtags (some of them are initiated by the governmentand some of them are created by some organizations orcommunities), however, these certain hashtags are powerful to influence the audience to be more aware with
Covid-19 situations. According to Liu, et al (2017), these191

Bruce Dame Laoera

movements have the potential to counteract bias andenable social justice, and also show how engaging in“hashtag activism” can forge a shared political temporality (Bonilla and Rosa, 2015). Therefore, in this case,influencer activists always put hashtags to portray theiropinion towards certain issues and influence their followers on Instagram to join in their movement or campaign.

Conclusion

Mardiasih, Utami, and Dewi are examples of young
influencers in Indonesia who gained their popularity
because of their political activism. By investigatingthese three influencer/activists based on their Instagram’scontents, this study explores how political discussions
flow and their activism which they have contributed andshared to the audience and society. Thus, their influences amidst the pandemic are visible in making youths
more aware and critical by contesting certain social
issues. However, my analysis here only focuses on their
Instagram’s contents during the early Covid-19 pandemic. It is shown that they did three main things toinfluence their audience to join their activism in fighting
Covid-19. First, they conveyed their reaction and told
their audience about their experience in coping with the
pandemic situation. Second, they persuade their audience to donate to help vulnerable people affected by
Covid-19. Third, they put hashtags that are related to thecurrent pandemic situation. Furthermore, months after
the shocking situation of the early period of Covid-19
pandemic, they return to discuss their usual activism.
However, their Instagram posts which do not deliver the
topics of fighting the Covid-19 pandemic are not discussed here.

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